Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Thomas Joseph Carroll's Obituary

Thomas Joseph Carroll

Time of Service: 11:00 AM - Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Place of Service: Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel, 1076 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10028

On August 12, 2014
Tom Carroll was a graduate of Notre Dame and a former officer in the United States Navy. In his early career, he became a CPA and rose to partnership in the firm of KPMG. The next step in his career was as a senior managing partner at Credit Suisse, Bankers Trust and finally at Prudential Financial where he was a senior Vice President. At Prudential, he was a respected figure in the executive branch. He was acknowledged for his leadership in diversity and his recognition and incorporation of all branches of military service personnel. As a member of both the NY Yacht Club and the Larchmont Yacht Club, he pursued his passion for sailing with great success and reward as captain of "Siren Song." He ran nine New York Marathons coming once under four hours. He established the Patrick and Mary Carroll Scholarship Fund at the University of Notre Dame and served on the board of the William Holden Wildlife Foundation. He is survived by his son Tom Carroll, Jr., daughter Cathy Locabucci, three grandchildren and his partner of fourteen years Stefanie Powers. Service will be held on Wednesday, August 20, 2014 at 11:00 AM at Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel, 1076 Madison Avenue at 81st St. In lieu of flowers donations to the Patrick and Mary Carroll Scholarship Fund and the William Holden Wildlife Foundation are appreciated.

Prudential Auditor Who Romanced Actress Stefanie Powers Dies At 72

Thomas Carroll, who announced his retirement in June as chief auditor at Prudential Financial Inc. and had a brush with celebrity through his 14-year relationship with actress Stefanie Powers, has died. He was 72.

He died on Aug. 12, according to a notice on the website of Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel in New York. No details were provided.

In 2001, during Carroll’s 15-year tenure as chief auditor and senior vice president, Newark, New Jersey-based Prudential became a public company following 125 years of ownership by policyholders.

He “was instrumental in supporting the demutualization of Prudential and ensuring that we manage our company in a manner consistent with what our customers and shareholders expect,” Vice Chairman Mark Grier said in the announcement of Carroll’s retirement. Prudential is the second-largest U.S. life insurer by assets behind MetLife Inc.

Carroll joined Prudential in 1999 from Bankers Trust Co., where he had been general auditor, managing director and partner. He was global chief auditor and a managing director at Credit Suisse First Boston from 1991 to 1996. He began his career in 1965 at the accounting firm that today is KPMG LLP, according to a news release announcing his move to Prudential.

Manhattan Meeting

It was in 2000 that he met Powers at a benefit concert held at an apartment on New York’s West Side where she was among the singers who performed, according to her 2010 memoir, “One From the Hart.” Powers, a television star since the 1960s, is best known for “Hart to Hart,” which aired from 1979 to 1984. In it, she and actor Robert Wagner portrayed glamorously wealthy husband-and-wife amateur detectives.

The host of the 2000 benefit fixed her up with Carroll, who was attending as chairman of the building’s board.

When they met at the apartment door, “I think I saw his smile before I saw his face,” she wrote. “It was a very attractive smile, and it belonged to a very attractive face. He was the all-American boy, healthy, fit, a Notre Dame Irishman. Clear-eyed, and unattached, he looked like a movie star in his suit and tie.”

They made a date to go sailing the following day.

Twice married and divorced, Powers said she initially resisted becoming involved again. But, she added, “There is an abiding decency in Tom that makes him a rare and special person.”

Kenya Charity

Carroll became a director of the foundation that Powers founded to honor William Holden, the Academy Award-winning actor who was her romantic partner until his death in 1981. The William Holden Wildlife Foundation, based in Beverly Hills, California, raises money to support a conservation and education center in Kenya, where Holden created a safari club in 1959.

A 2009 article in Prudential’s employee newsletter described how Carroll created a pen-pal program connecting students at Alexander Street School in Newark and Guara Primary School in Nanyuki, Kenya.

“I wanted to help inner-city students here learn more about the world and the environment directly from kids their age,” Carroll was quoted as saying.

Thomas Joseph Carroll was born on Aug. 30, 1941. His parents were Patrick Carroll and the former Mary Jennings, according to a 2012 death notice for his sister, Patricia Carroll Hayden.

He graduated from the University of Notre Dame and was an officer in the U.S. Navy.

According to the funeral home statement, he was a member of the New York Yacht Club and the Larchmont Yacht Club. His sailboat, the Siren Song, was the top IRC boat on Long Island Sound, Sailing World reported in 2011. He ran the New York City Marathon nine times, once finishing in less than four hours, according to the notice.

In addition to Powers, survivors include a son, Tom Carroll Jr.; a daughter, Cathy Locabucci; and three grandchildren.

Thursday, March 06, 2014

Interview with A Ring By Spring Star Stefanie Powers

Hallmark Channel holds an annual dinner for its executives, creative staff, movies and series stars and invites the Television Critics Association members to attend as well. This year, it's at Pasadena’s Huntington Library, which houses classic works of painting, sculpture and science, along with a collection of rare books.

Actress Stefanie Powers is one of the attending guests, having co-starred in Hallmark Channel's A Ring By Spring, which premieres Saturday, March 9 at 7 pm Eastern time. Powers, who starred opposite Robert Wagner in five seasons of the romantic detective series Hart to hart, among many other projects, is by now perhaps as famous for her conservation work in Africa as she is for her acting. In an after-dinner conversation, she discusses both.

?: What is A Ring By Spring?

Stefanie Powers: It's a television movie for the Hallmark Channel and we did it up in Canada. "A ring by spring" is a prediction made by a woman, whom I play, to a young lady (played by Rachel Boston) who has been looking for love but has decided that it's probably not for her, because nothing has ever worked out. She comes to a charity event and she meets me and I read her cards and I say, "You will have a ring by spring, or you will never marry." And then along comes this lovely fellow (played by Kirby Morrow) and she turns him down, and there is no ring by spring, and then we run into each other again and I bully her. Eventually, as with all Hallmark movies, things work out and there's a happy ending.

?: Do you think you might ever do another Hart to Hart reunion movie?

SP: [laughs] Well, we've talked about it before. I guess it depends on who's going to come up with a good script and a good idea and the money.

?: Can you talk about what you're doing at present with your conservation work?

SP: The William Holden Wildlife Foundation is an ongoing project. Right now, it's the education component to conservation work, to specific conservation work. Although we do deal in some cases with specific animals, we generally deal with enlightening human beings who have the future of those animals in their hands, so (the education emphasizes) the need for the preservation of those animals and habitats that those animals must have to function, to live. So we also wind up dealing with the correct use of habitat and how to preserve it for humans and animals. And we serve about eleven thousand students a year coming through our center in Kenya, and in addition to that, we have an outreach program that deals with another six thousand students and their families. We encompass a large population. And we've been doing that since 1982. So it's a long-term project. And we see now several generations that have come to us who are now finding their way.

Pix of Stefanie Powers as Madame Rue in A Ring By Spring

Stefanie Powers as Madame Rue in Hallmark's A Ring By Spring. The telefilm premieres Saturday, March 8, 2014 at 7 pm Eastern time.

Click on the pictures to see a huge version of the photo. :)

















Tuesday, March 04, 2014

Stefanie Powers on Home and Family

Stefanie Powers was on Hallmark's Home and Family today chatting about her Hallmark movie A Ring By Spring. The movie premieres Saturday night at 7 pm Eastern time.

If you missed Home and Family, the show repeats on Hallmark tomorrow at noon Eastern time.

Friday, February 14, 2014

20th Sedona International Film Festival

With consistent community backing to ensure success and a forward-driving strategy to build an industry-wide reputation based on the overall Sedona experience for filmmakers, the public and sponsors, the Sedona International Film Festival celebrates its 20th anniversary with a powerful lineup of nearly 160 features, documentaries, shorts and special guests, Feb. 22 to March 2.

Film screening committees reviewed more than 1,000 films from around the world in making the final selections that will be shown on six screens at three venues surrounded by Sedona’s world-famous red rocks and hospitality.

The Festival also will welcome Emmy Award nominee Stefanie Powers who will present her one-woman show.

For more information, visit www.sedonafilmfestival.org.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Stefanie Powers Joins Star-Studded "The Man Who Came to Dinner" to Benefit Coyote Stageworks 1/19/14

StageWorks is pleased to announce that veteran television and film actress Stefanie Powers is scheduled to appear in "The Man Who Came to Dinner" at 6:00 pm on Sunday, January 19, 2014 at the Annenberg Theater in Palm Springs. Powers, best known for her role as Jennifer Hart in the 1980's television series "Hart to Hart," joins a roster of celebrities for this one-night-only performance to benefit Coyote StageWorks, a not-for-profit company dedicated to advancing theatre as a vital art form in the desert communities of the Coachella Valley.

"Stefanie Powers ("Hart to Hart") and Daphne Zuniga ("Melrose Place") are the latest big name stars to join our production, and the caliber of talent taking the stage that night will be unprecedented for this sort of performance," says Chuck Yates, Founding Artistic Director of Coyote StageWorks. "The Annenberg stage is going to be filled with celebrities, all of whom are helping to bring about awareness for our local theatre company. This is a dream come true." "The Man Who Came to Dinner" was written by Moss Hartand George S. Kaufman, and opened on Broadway 75 years ago.

The storyline is set in a small town in Ohio in the 1930s during the weeks leading to Christmas. Tickets are $75 and $125 per person for the performance only; $250 and $500 tickets include a VIP cast reception following the performance. Artists are subject to change without notice.

Also appearing in the production is actor Christopher Atkins, who rose to fame with his co-starring debut role in the 1980 film "The Blue Lagoon." Broadway veteran Alix Korey, whose credits include "Hello, Dolly!," "The Pirates of Penzance," "Ain't Broadway Grand," and "Chicago" has also joined the cast. In addition, Broadway, TV, film, and cabaret performer Sal Mistretta is also scheduled to appear. Mistretta has performed on both coasts in major productions including "Evita" and "Sunset Boulevard," and in the Ace Award-winning "Sweeney Todd" as Pirelli.

Veteran stage, television, and film actor G. W. Bailey has been cast as the famously outlandish radio wit SheriDan Whiteside, the role played by Nathan Lane in the show's Broadway revival in 2000. Bailey (Provenza of "The Closer" and "Major Crimes"; Captain Harris of "Police Academy") is joined by funnyman Fred Willard ("Everybody Loves Raymond," Waiting for Guffman," "A Mighty Wind"), and his "Major Crimes" and "The Closer" co-star Phillip P. Keene. Additional celebrities are Joyce Bulifant ("The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "Airplane!"), Jim J. Bullock ("Too Close for Comfort," "Hollywood Squares," Broadway's "Hairspray") and Mo Gaffney ("Absolutely Fabulous," "That 70's Show," "Kathy and Mo: Parallel Lives".)

Local celebrities slated to appear include Valley philanthropists Annette Bloch, Barbara and Jerry Keller (Acqua Pazza, Lulu), and Terri Ketover. Wells Fargo financial professional Gary Hall will play a role, as will popular radio host Bill "Bulldog" Feingold, and CBS Local 2 meteorologist Patrick Evans.

Twice voted "Best Live Theater" by Desert Magazine in 2013 and 2014, Coyote StageWorks was also presented with fifteen Desert Star Awards by the Desert Theatre League on October 6th. For more information about Coyote StageWorks and its 2014 season, please visit coyotestageworks.org. For information on group sales, call 760-318-0024. To purchase individual tickets or subscriptions, call 760-325-4490 or visit www.annenbergtheater.org.